An Englishman of forty years residence in Wales pontificates about politics (slightly off-message), films and trivia. Secretary of Aberavon and Neath Liberal Democrats. Candidate for Neath in the Westminster elections of 1997 & 2017 and the Welsh general election of 2016.

Monday, 13 May 2013

ANC leadership feeling the strain

The former Archbishop Desmond Tutu's public repudiation of the African National Congress government may have been driven by a growing resentment that religious leaders are no longer given credit for their part in the fight against apartheid, but the immediate cause of his outburst - the withdrawal by the Dalai Lama from a visit to South Africa - raises the issue of a wider disquiet.

Appeasement of the Chinese, big investors in Africa, may have been behind the Dalai Lama decision. Charges of corruption still hang over president Jacob Zuma, who has now begun a PR offensive. Part of this, an invasive photo-shoot with the ailing former president Nelson Mandela, has not gone down well.